Digital projector systems or devices are frequently used to display a still or video image. Viewers frequently desire to see images high in resolution, brightness, and color purity, and low in objectionable visual artifacts such as flicker.
Projection systems are becoming increasingly common-place in the home theatre venue and are often used to display movies and computer images. Projection systems are also popular among video game enthusiasts because of their rich and vibrant display capabilities.
It is often desirable for a projector system to produce stereoscopic or three dimensional (3D) images such as 3D movies and 3D video games. Typically, the projection of 3D images requires two separate image projectors, one dedicated to projecting left eye images, and the other dedicated to projecting right eye images. The left and right images are displayed in spatially offset positions on a suitable viewing surface. The left and right images each carry different perspectives. By viewing the images through glasses configured to allow the left image to be perceived by only the left eye and the right image to be perceived by only the right eye, a viewer is able to see a single composite 3D image.
The left and right images in a 3D video are often composed of the blue and red portions of the color gamut, respectively. These blue and red images are typically displayed in alternating video frames. Such 3D systems result in undesirable visual artifacts such as flicker and loss of color gamut. Other 3D display systems use polarizing filters to separate the left and right images. However, these systems suffer from light inefficiencies and often have complicated and expensive optics.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.